We’ve been very impatient to see Edgar Wright‘s Ant-Man, and can you blame us? By the time it’s released in late 2015, it’ll have been almost ten years since the filmmaker began working on it. That’s long enough to make even the most faithful fans worry.

But Wright says he had his reasons for taking his time, two of which were Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and The World’s End. Moreover, he points out, Ant-Man could ultimately benefit from the slow schedule, since he knows much more about special effects now than he did back in 2006. Read his latest comments about the long-awaited project after the jump.

Wright spoke about Ant-Man in an interview with IGN. While it may look from the outside like he or Marvel were dragging their feet on the project, the filmmaker assures the website that’s not the case.

I’ve been collaborating with [Marvel boss] Kevin [Feige] during the whole of that cycle. I think people have always assumed… ‘Oh why is it taking so long to make?’ Part of it is because I wanted to make two other movies first. I wanted to make World’s End… me and Simon [Pegg] were very keen to make it and it felt like it was unfinished business and we wanted to wrap up the trilogy. The script came together really fast. Well not really fast, but it came together at a certain point where it was like ‘I really want to do this next.’

Besides, Wright adds, now he can bring the skills he’s honed on his last two projects to the effects-heavy Ant-Man.

But to be honest, the later I do it, it feels like I could learn more, especially about special effects. It’s a big effects movie, so I’m pleased to go into it having done Scott Pilgrim and The World’s End because you’re always learning more about that side.

The first test footage that played at last summer’s Comic-Con wasn’t too shabby, but Wright hopes for an opportunity to do some more polishing so he can show it to fans again. “I hope that at some point we’ll be able to show that at some venue all finished,” he said. “Because obviously at Comic-Con we showed it unfinished. All done it looks really good.”

As the first film of Phase Three, Ant-Man will be the twelfth feature installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Nevertheless, Wright is confident his movie will be able to stand on its own. “It’s a way of doing a superhero film within another genre,” he said. “I wanted to tell an origin tale in a slightly different way. It’s part of the Marvel cinematic universe, but it also feels like its own piece.”